Mesothelioma Petition - Downing Street

I was honoured to be asked to help hand over the petition collected for NCARD on 20th May at Downing Street.

The Whole day was an experience. I met Chris Knighton on the train and although I have met her several times over the last 4 years I have hardly spent any time chatting. It was like a girl's day out. The journey passed so quickly and we called in at St Pancaras Station for a cuppa on arrival. Then off to Downing Street.

When I was a child of 12 you were able to walk up Downing Street, it seems so strange that you have to go through security to walk on a British footpath. Alas, this is a sign of our times its such a shame that we have lost that wonderful feeling of being able to walk anywhere and feel safe and secure. Without being too political there was a demonstration going on for Sri Lanka. Would we dare go to these countries and start an uproar, no we wouldn't! We missed out on a lot more publicity due to Joanne Lumley, but good on her getting our fighting comrades a home in the country they have been loyal to.

I was given the box of some 24,000 signatures to hand over, with the help of Dave Anderson MP (it was heavy), I knocked on the door and the butler answered, in a few swift seconds the door was closed again and our hands no longer held the box.

We spent 20 minutes outside doing an interview for the Daily Mirror, please check the link on the side under important links. Then we took some pictures ourselves. Thankfully, as our train didn't leave until 7.00 pm, we were invited to Westminster and Chris, Dave and I had cream tea, unfortunately for John Edwards and Liz Darlison they had to attend another function in aid of Mesothelioma and poor Paula who had pulled everything together had to travel straight back.

After Cream Tea, Dave took us up to the terrace, I was so thankful as I had a thick sweater on and I was roasting, wish up north had the same temperatures as down south! A glass of wine as the sun went down was a perfect ending to the day.

Everyone has worked extremely hard to get this off the ground and I come along and hand it in, how cool was that. The signature count for my friends, family and I was 1066, I said we have to succeed as this is the year William conquered England.

Once again thank you to everyone that signed the petition.

Jan